The art of “everyday resistance”: Small city cultural actors’ disruption of extralocal growth politics

Abstract

In a policymaking climate characterized by the devolution of responsibilities from the state to local level and the decrease in state funding of municipal projects, state and local actors across the U.S. turn to culture as a revenue-generating strategy. Positioning the cultural field in this role means that new actors and logics govern the field, making for tensions between multiple levels of cultural landscaping. We know a great deal about how large cities navigate tensions emerging from growth politics, but little about how groups in small cities receive and use formal, state-initiated cultural development programs. To understand small-city power relations and arts-oriented development, I draw on James C. Scott’s theory of “everyday resistance.” An analysis of fieldnotes and in-depth interviews with local cultural actors in two small-city cultural districts illustrates the “everyday resistance” they use to navigate tensions. This paper uncovers the nuanced strategies small-city cultural actors use to disrupt growth politics, at times, harmonizing with extralocal agendas, but also modifying and circumventing them to meet community needs.

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